were liable to its jurisdiction, were also the judges; that is to say, the courts were essentially popular. The whole body present settled the disputes or judged the crimes of the individuals, the chief officer being, in fact, the chairman. Practically, in the Shire Court, twelve chief Thegns or chief freeholders sat with the sheriff as judges, representatives of the whole body. It was also a principle, at all events originally, that no superior court should have jurisdiction till the inferior courts had done their best towards the settlement of the disputed point. Ecclesiastically, the parishes were co-extensive with the townships, the bishoprics in a great degree co-extensive with the shires or ancient kingdoms. [Sidenote: Growth of territorial jurisdiction.] In process of time, the position of the king somewhat changed. He began to be regarded as the one lord of the land. From being the King of the Saxons he gradually became the King of England. His personal relation became territorial. The folcland became royal demesne, and the king came to be regarded as the origin of justice. This change, among other causes, tended much to the growth of a system which was in fact incipient feudalism. The national courts constantly became more the private courts of great lords. The connection between the possession of land and the judicial power grew constantly stronger. It had early been the custom to establish in the favour of lords to whom grants were made Liberties, or _Soken_, as they were called; that is, land was granted exempted from the jurisdiction of the Hundred. The judicial rights of the Hundred, together with the payments accruing from them, were vested in the lord who received the grant. These rights are implied in the words _sac_ and _soc_. As townships on a lord’s land became manors, so these Liberties, on which there were many townships, became private Hundreds. They were probably, before the Conquest, not exempted from the jurisdiction of the Shire. It has been already mentioned that, either by commendation or by the encroachment of local magnates, freemen (allodial proprietors as they were called) took in many cases the position of dependants. Their property then assumed the character of bocland, or land held by charter, instead of hereditary freehold. By commending themselves to a lord they would free themselves from the burden of military duty, which would then fall upon the lord as proprietor of the land. Justice would be more easily obtained from the neighbouring court of the lord than from the distant court of the Hundred or county. Protection from invasion or from the violence of neighbours would be gained. Again, the police regulation, by which all landless men were obliged to seek a lord, would strengthen the idea of the necessity of dependence.